They’ve trashed hotel rooms. Dabbled in class A drugs. Written the book on late-night drinking. And burnt through a fortune pursuing vicious feuds with fellow band members. Oasis? Definitely Maybe! But those quintessential Eighties pop stars Bucks Fizz? Surely not!
They were the squeaky-clean band whose most outrageous act in their Eurovision heyday was tearing the skirts off the two blonde singers midway through the continent’s cheesiest song contest. Their show-stopping dance routine and featherweight lyrics wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow from Katy Perry or Lady Gaga fans these days, but the four wannabes had 100 million primetime viewers agog in 1981. So it’s disconcerting to hear, while discussing their comeback nearly four decades later, that the band had a secret predilection for eye-popping sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll antics.
Despite claiming Eurovision victory in Dublin in 1981 and selling four million copies of the infuriatingly catchy Making Your Mind Up, Bucks Fizz were ridiculed as horribly ‘uncool’
‘We didn’t invent the trashing of hotel rooms – but we were quick learners,’ says Cheryl Baker, one of rock ’n’ roll’s most unlikely hedonists, though the 63-year-old singer is still a lively bundle of energy. ‘It became quite a regular occurrence. When we got bored with that, we moved on to emptying a hotel room of all its contents. The occupant would return to find everything gone – including the bed.’
Liam Gallagher might agree with her mischievous suggestion that: ‘On tour you have to make your own entertainment.’
Well quite. As the original members of the band open up to Event, it becomes clear that they had more in common with Oasis than Abba, though they were often dismissed as a bargain-basement version of the Swedes. As well as demolishing hotel suites, there were marathon drinking sessions while out on tour and even some furtive encounters with Class A drugs. Behaviour that would surely have scored a resounding nul points from Terry Wogan and their teenybopper fan base had they known.
They were the squeaky-clean band whose most outrageous act in their Eurovision heyday was tearing the skirts off the two blonde singers midway through the song contest
Baker and Mike Nolan, 62, confirm they ‘enjoyed a drink’ and on one occasion, when the other band members (Jay Aston and Bobby G) opted for an early night, worked their way through the entire cocktail list of a bar.
‘It was a colossal amount of alcohol. The following morning was very tough. There were quite a few tough mornings,’ says Nolan, who gave up serious drinking in 1984.
And the drugs? ‘I tried a line of cocaine and rubbed some inside my mouth,’ reveals Baker. ‘It felt like I’d been to the dentist. Then my nose started running. I thought, “How do people find this pleasurable?” That was the first and last time.’
Despite claiming Eurovision victory in Dublin in 1981 and selling four million copies of the infuriatingly catchy Making Your Mind Up, Bucks Fizz were ridiculed as horribly ‘uncool’ compared with other Eighties bands such as the supermodel magnets Duran Duran or the futuristic Human League. But the group says it never really bothered them.
‘From the start we were something of a guilty pleasure,’ says Baker. ‘Few people over the age of 12 would admit to liking us. It probably didn’t help that we were one of the first manufactured bands. It made us inauthentic in some people’s eyes. They saw us as puppets.’
The Fizz today (from left, Aston, Bobby McVay, Baker and Nolan)
Puppets or not, for a time they were unstoppable: The Land Of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies both spun their way to the top of the charts and the band enjoyed endless sell-out tours. But by the end of 1984 the hits had begun to dry up. And then came a more serious disaster. Returning from a gig in Newcastle that year, their tour bus crashed into some roadworks. Bobby G was treated for whiplash, Baker broke three vertebrae, Aston was hospitalised for back injuries and severe head pains and Nolan, the worst injured, suffered internal bleeding and fell into a coma.
‘In the ambulance on the way to the hospital I’m told I briefly regained consciousness and asked the paramedic, “Is my face marked?” When told that I wouldn’t be scarred, I fell unconscious again. Typical pop star!’
The band had one more top ten single (1985’s New Beginning) but that would be their last big hit. Aston quit as the group realised that despite their success, they would be lucky to afford a fresh orange juice, never mind a Buck’s Fizz. Like so many star-struck pop stars before them, they had all signed a 20-year recording contract and couldn’t afford to get legal advice – something, Nolan says, ‘we lived to regret’.
The following years brought mixed fortunes for the original band members. Away from the group, Baker became a successful television presenter, most notably on Record Breakers and The Saturday Picture Show, while Nolan continued to focus on the band. But it was far from a new beginning.
‘My lowest point? My dealings with ex-Dollar star David Van Day after he joined Bucks Fizz in the late Nineties,’ says Nolan. ‘I’ve worked with a few difficult people but he was the worst by a country mile.’ The pair fell out and Nolan took Van Day to court in a dispute over unpaid earnings. ‘I won the case. Three days later he went bankrupt and I was left to pay the court fees of £40k. It left me broke and I had to sell my beautiful penthouse in Maida Vale. I could never forgive that ****hole for what he did to me.’
Aston, who at 56 has lost none of her glamour, had similar financial headaches when she left the band. ‘I had 13 lawsuits by the age of 23 and faced a £500,000 legal bill. This was all due to the contracts I signed when I first joined the band. In the midst of the 1991 recession, I had to sell my house.’
Bucks Fizz went through several incarnations with 16 singers dancing into the wings over the years. Then, in 2011, Baker, Nolan and Aston found themselves caught up in a bitter legal conflict with Bobby G over the use of the band’s name. In the end Nolan, Baker and Aston rebranded themselves as Cheryl, Mike and Jay: Formerly of Bucks Fizz, before recruiting vocalist Bobby McVay and settling on The Fizz. (Bobby G is soldiering on, independently, with his own version of the band.)
It’s a far cry from the those early days in 1980 when pop manager Nichola Martin was looking for four vocalists to record Making Your Mind Up with hopes of entering the Eurovision heats. Nolan, a former factory worker who’d cut his musical teeth in the bars of Dublin, was the first recruit, followed by Baker, who had already competed for the UK in the 1978 contest as part of Co-Co. Then came Aston and, last, Bobby G, who was juggling a day job as a builder while starring as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Returning from a gig in Newcastle in 1984, the band’s tour bus crashed into some roadworks, causing severe injuries for all band members
Their performance in the 1981 contest left host Terry Wogan utterly lost for words when, midway through the song, Baker and Aston had their bright skirts whipped off by Nolan and Bobby G. When Wogan finally regained his composure he cheekily acknowledged that the gimmick was a treat for all the dads out there, before adding, ‘You know what? I think the UK might be in with a chance tonight.’
Not a day goes by without someone reminding Baker of the impact of that performance. ‘I was once approached on a train and offered £500 to recreate the skirt-rip on the spot,’ she says with a chuckle. ‘Unfortunately, I was wearing trousers so I had to decline.’
Whatever happens with the new album, The Fizz’s place in pop history is secure as one of only five UK acts to have won Eurovision. And Baker knows what swung it for them. ‘You need to create a memorable moment,’ she says, ‘something that catches the imagination and is not easily forgotten. It’s not all about the song.’
‘The F-Z Of Pop’ by The Fizz is out on September 22